Painting Fun

A can of shaving cream goes a long way! It's been at least 3 year since I introduced the boys to adding paint to shaving creaming to make dimensional paintings. I still remember the first time too. At first both were hesitant and thrown off the texture. Then they got into it. Really into it. Corwyn painted not only the paper, but the wall, the table the chair and his whole body and head. Nathan got into piling it in the middle and making a big splash.

Yesterday, we finally used the last of that first can of shaving cream.

They started out with 5 colors, but as happens the one that was smeared on top takes over, so the effect was orange. The other colors are on the paper but harder to see. They used glitter glue to keep the peaks and add sparkle.

This time they got into texture. Using their hands, fingers, paint brushes (both as a brush and rolling it around) and some bead squares. In the end, each chose a different style for their finished picture.

 

  
 

I love painting like this. They get to play lots and since there is both washable paint and a soap based product, cleanup is very easy.

Nathan's Work of Art

Corwyn's Finished Product

Swim little fishes swim!

This week we were blessed enough to go with Meta Communities to Bowen Island for the Coho Salmon release. All the kids had a blast!


I'm lousy at creating these little videos but the boys were so excited and they did so incredibly well on the trip there (minus a small shoe thrown into the waterfall incident) that I had to try.

I think this may be an annual event for us. I also think, having done a fair bit of travel this weekend on transit, that it's time we went on more adventuring. They're 5, we can do this!

Jump. You Might as Well Jump

Alive and kicking!

Yes I'm still here! I just have less blog time.

I have the kids and my day job. And now I have Avon. Avon is great in that it doesn't take away any of my time with the kids, but it does cut into things like blogging. Sorry! As the business continues to take off, I'll have a mixed amount of time but will try to keep up - promise.

Things are going well. Both boys are getting sooooooooooooooooooooooo big. I registered them for school in September (I know, they were just born like yesterday!)

Compromise Progress

I know with kids it's one step forward and two steps back, so I don't take our recent breakthrough in the area of compromise as a new way of living, but as a step in the right direction.

If you have more than one child you have had to deal with the battles of one wanting one thing and the other something conflicting. If you're kids are different ages, you can sometimes appeal to the elder one for a bit of a break or some balance. Not always, but sometimes. If you have twins (or more) that's not an option.

Many times mine will agree on things, be it what they want for dinner, want to watch on TV, where to go play, if they want to go play etc. But on the times they don't agree, they really don't agree and neither will budge. Sometimes, one will disagree just to disagree.

I have tried it all. Take turns, do what A wants then what B wants (battles). Reason (yeah, right, reason with 3 year olds). Let A pick the meal and B pick the movie (battles). Do something else (battles). Arbitrarily pick one (battles). And the battles can be small, but more often or not, they get physical. Since words did not win them their own way, they will try other methods, or just scream for a few hours straight. I kid you not, if Corwyn picks a movie Nathan doesn't want, Nathan will cry the entire time. But honestly, that is better than the other way. If Nathan picks a movie Corwyn does not want, Corwyn will turn off or unplug the DVD player, throw toys or pound on Nathan, all the time screaming. Often I'm the punching bag too, both literally and figuratively.

So I decided enough. Now we do nothing until both agree. Sometimes it takes a very, very, very long time. This weekend, while waiting for dinner to be cooked, they couldn't decide on a Netflix show. I refused to put it on until they did. Eventually one walked away to do something else. The other considered it a victory of course.

Same with food. I wont start a meal until they agree (at least on the part I offered them a choice in).

Everything takes much longer now and sometimes there are battles while they try to force each other to agree, but it's getting better and each is making more compromises.

But the best was when they worked something more complex out and no one 'lost'.  We had been playing out in the back. We came in for a bit. Nathan wanted to eat outside in the backyard. Corwyn wasn't hungry and wanted to go ride his bike to the playground. Nathan did not want his bike, Corwyn did not want to go into the back. I suggested eating at the playground. Nope. They were both quite agitated so I just sat down and told them they had to agree or we would do nothing. So I sat. They both whined their requests over and over a bit, pleading with me to pick them. I stood my ground. Finally, after about 15 minutes, Nathan said "Why don't we watch 1 TV show. Then eat here. Then take our bikes to the playground". Corwyn immediately said yes. And while TV on a nice sunny day was not in my plans, I was not going to do anything to derail this progress.

And that is exactly what we did. It was a big small step.

The Stars of Tomorrow

I thought with all the horror in today's news, people might like a little pick me up. 

They were already dressed the part, so I brought up the Village People on my computer and the minute they started watching the video of YMCA they had to try it themselves.

Family Baking Time - Pumpkin Bread

I love anything pumpkin/squash. I grab as many as I can while they are in season at the farmers market (they store great). I also snap up any organic canned pumpkin as it comes on sale for the season.

Last night, with the help of the boys, we made pumpkin spice bread.

Creaming the egg and coconut oil (yes, I prefer coconut oil over butter or margarine)

Measuring the pumpkin out

Adding it in

Double fisted stirring

They insisted on Halloween type sprinkles (non food if you ask me, but I'm not 3) and into the oven.

After what to them was forever, it was out of the pan to cool

After yet another wait for it to be cool enough to eat, it was put to the test. It passed.

Wordless Wednesday - Jack-o-Lanterns

Please remember to vote for me on Circle of Moms

Reusable felt Pumpkins and face 'pieces'. Fast and easy to make.

What we did last week

I work days so the time I get to spend with my kids is precious to me. I want then to have fun and if we can mix in a bit of learning in the process, all the better. My approach to learning is a mix of Montessori and Play Based Learning (which I personally think overlap quite well). I try to mix in some specific skills each week and watch them for the sensitive periods they are in or approaching.

This week in our time together we covered areas of fine and gross motor skills, letters/phonics, counting, numbers and math, sensory, art and expression. Here are some of the things we did in pictures. While some of these look like work to us, to the kids they are all fun.

We worked sensory and fine motor skills with the Montessori themed knobbed cylinders. I have the mini set and while each will often work with all 4 at once, if they both want to use them, they each take a pair, work them, then I'll switch one for each. Nathan can often sit with the activity for more than an hour, although in this session both wanted to move on after 30 minutes.

I finally found a board game I liked enough to try. It's our first real turn taking and structured game. It was a huge hit. While playing they work on turn taking, colors, counting and even fine motor skills (not pictured is the squirrel that they use like tweezers to pick up the acorns). 

I used some of our Discovery Toys manipulatives for color matching and patterns. If you don't know about Discovery Toys, keep an eye out for my friend over at www.aias.ca as she'll be having a giveaway later this month of one of their best products (which we also have).

More patterns and fine motor with a connect 4 type of game.

We also started working on phonics this week. I'm basing this on the Montessori Method, but since my guys already "know" the alphabet, I'm modifying it a bit. We started with 'm' and 'a' this week. Corwyn LOVES the sandpaper letters and will trace them any moment he gets (I let him!). Nathan was a bit meh about those but both loved one of the games we played. In it, they put the big and little m/a on the fridge. I sit in the living room and ask them to bring me the sound that starts the word monkey/apple/mommy/astronaut/montorcycle etc. They played and played and played, getting winded in the process. So much fun. Why did I start with these letters? I'm following one of the recommended letter introduction orders in Montessori. This is a good write up about it at Living Montessori Now. I picked this specific one because I have the Bob level 1 books that go with it. Two more letters and they will have enough to read an entire book on their own. We'll round these 2 out with s and t.

We did painting and gluing and drawing for art. I also got a mini spirograph type of set and they are using it and the geometric templates it comes with for tracing and drawing.

They are loving their bikes and get out whenever they can. We're still working on road safety, but after showing Corwyn some mangled bikes and telling him this is what happens to a bike that gets hit by a car, he is much better.

The weather has been great so there has also been lots of playground and beach time. I'll miss this when it starts being dark before I get home from work.

I'm linking this post to Montessori Monday. Check out some of the other links there. This is where I get the base for much of my inspiration.

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Wordless Wednesday - Chopsticks